How will you be spending MLK day?

We've had an awfully busy weekend, but I'll be celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s life here. I was kind of bummed that they've changed the location--last year we went, and it was at Jefferson High School, which we could walk to. Today I have to take my car to the shop, so we'll be getting to the celebration in Rosa Park's style. :-)

I'll tell you one highlight from my weekend. On Saturday I drove for Girl Scouts Beyond Bars. It was my first time going into the medium security side of the prison. Write Around Portland was finishing up their series of workshops with the girls and moms and this was the day that they'd all read to the group what they'd written. But we first started with a talk from Rene Mitchell, who is a columnist with the Oregonian. What a powerful voice! One quote she started with (I think she was quoting someone else, but I'm not sure who): "There is no one you couldn't love, after you hear their stories." She spoke of victims of abuse, as she is a survivor of domestic abuse herself, and trying to understand each other, why we do the things we do. I think hers is a story we all need to hear: rich, poor, white, black, young, old. It's part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream.

Listening to the stories of the incarcerated moms and their daughters was very moving and inspiring, as well. Write Around Portland publishes anthologies of these stories, and the newest one is called Echoes. You can find it at many bookstores in Portland. For a list of bookstores that sell it, look here.

Oh, okay, I'll tell about one more thing we did this weekend. Our high school group at church is planning a trip to Project Mexico this March, during Spring break. Last night they got together for a preparation meeting, to start understanding what kinds of situations they'll be walking into. Margaret Yova from Project Mexico sent some activities we could do with the kids, and here's one of her ideas we did. When the kids came in, they were presented with a spinner which was divided into colors, like this: one half was yellow, a little more than one quarter was red, and a little less than one quarter was blue. Each of them put on a name tag that was the color they'd spun. Then when it came time for snacks, they could eat from the table that was specifically for their color. The yellow table had just a few little snacks, not nearly enough for the eight kids who had yellow tags. The red table had about enough without it being too much for the number of kids who were there. But the blue table was sumptuously laden with almost all the snacks, and the four kids (plus me!) couldn't even dream of finishing everything. This, of course, was a picture, a very vivid picture, of how the distribution of food and wealth is laid out in this world.

We also had my very wonderful Spanish teacher from Portland Community College come and teach a bit of Spanish to the kids, and talk about the culture a bit. She's from Colombia, but she just got back from a tour of Mexico. It was perfect!

But my, oh my, we were beat after a long day, and afterward went home and almost immediately to bed. Paul said there were enough events just this weekend to fill the whole week. He slept in this morning. :-)